Molly Melching

Who is Molly Melching?

Molly Melching is the founder and executive director of Tostan, a Non-Governmental Organization headquartered in Dakar, Senegal whose mission it is to empower African communities to bring about sustainable development and positive social transformation based on respect of human rights. Tostan and Melching have gained international notice for their work with partner communities to encourage the abandonment of female genital cutting and child/forced marriage in Senegal, and other countries across West and East Africa. Under Tostan's Community Empowerment Program, a community may elect to participate in a three-year, nonformal, education and community organizing training. As of April 2013, 5,423 communities in Senegal have publicly declared their abandonment of FGC after either participating themselves in Tostan's program or through the process of ‘organized diffusion’, spreading what they have learned among neighboring communities. In total, more than 6,400 African communities have abandoned FGC across the countries where Tostan works.

Melching's expertise is in developing educational materials for use at the community level in Africa, and she helped create the Tostan Community Empowerment Program. Melching's work along with that of Senegalese communities has also contributed to several innovative community development and communication techniques including the model of organized diffusion of information and the use of the public declaration for the abandonment of FGC and child/forced marriage.